Edgar Allan Poe Essays

Edgar Allan Poe’s Writing Style

Edgar Allan Poe was one of the most powerful American poets and short story writers of the nineteenth century. He was most famous for his tales and poems of horror and mystery. Also, Edgar Allan Poe worked as a literary critic and editor. In his lifetime, he had the perception of being one of the first American writers with more cultural assets in Europe than in the United States. A famous author who initiated the start of detective stories and could spook his readers out with his tales of horror was born in January 19, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts. When Poe was two years old, his mother passed away and his father had already abandoned the family. Poe then went on to live with John and Frances Allan, a successful tobacco merchant and his wife, in Richmond, Virginia. Preferring poetry over profits, Poe reportedly wrote poems on the back of some of Allan’s business papers. Additionally, money was on issue between Poe and John Allan. When Poe went to the University of Virginia in 1826, he didn’t receive enough funds from Allan to cover all his costs. So Poe then turned to gambling to cover the rest of his costs, but ended up in debt. He then wanted to go to West Point, a military academy. He excelled at his studies in West point, but was later kicked out after a year for his poor handling of his duties. While Poe was in West Point, his wife Elmira, would send letters to Poe. But the letters she had sent to him had been intercepted by both sets of parents and, having received no encouraging replies from Poe, she persuaded to become engaged to another man. After this, Poe began drinking seriously, he had little resistance to alcohol and easily became violent and irrational when he drank too much. Edgar Allan Poe’s obvious drug and alcohol problem combined with his dysfunctional and habitually unsupportive family play a large role in the development of Poe’s unique writing styles and topics (Mini Bio). On the other hand, one of his masterpieces that he is well known for is known as “The Raven”. Poe’s work reflected his own bitter and mysterious life. In most of his writing there is a blur between what is real and what if fiction because many of his narrators are on some sort of drugs. His mysterious style of writing appeals to emotion and drama. Poe’s most impressionable works of fiction are gothic. His stories tend to have the same recurring theme of either death, lost love or both. Edgar was a romantic writer, and his style was gothic. Poe was a part of the American renaissance movement and it is apparent he along with many other American writers rejected the British form of writing (Poetic Studies). He seemed to embrace that writing should express emotions. It shouldn’t just follow a certain rubric of rules but effuse from the heart. The tell-tale signs of a romantic writer are strong idealism and rejection of classicism (Poetry Foundation). These characteristics are vividly found in his work known as “Ligeia”.
In this story the narrator is an opium addict who marries a woman named Ligeia. He finds her to be very intriguing. He sees her as a beautiful woman with a mysterious personality. Unfortunately, she dies and he ends up marrying a stereotypical woman named Rowena. She is the complete opposite of Ligea in that she is exactly the way all the women of his era are supposed to be like. At the end of the story this woman also dies but then Ligea returns to the author through Rowena’s dead body. The romantic writer uses many examples to illustrate his preference for Romanticism over British literature and Classicism (Poetic Studies). The preference of the author for his first wife is an example of strong idealism and rejection of classicism (Ligeia). For instance, the writer describes his wife as an extraordinary being…almost inhuman: “She came and departed as a shadow.” Then he goes on to talk about her eyes and mentions that they are much bigger than normal eyes should be. He has a soft

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